About the Program

Economic theory and evidence from social psychology predict that migrant workers are disadvantaged in their relationship with their employers.  Migrants are particularly vulnerable if they lack control of their documents, incur recruitment fee related debt and are deceived about their working and living conditions.  We are conducting an impact evaluation of a fair recruitment pilot designed to cover the entire recruitment process from sending community to arrival along the Nepal-Jordan corridor.  Fair recruitment implies among others that no recruitment fees or related costs collected from the worker, adequate and efficient screening for and training in job skills, full disclosure of employment terms and conditions and pre-departure training on rights and obligations.

Two hundred migrants recruited through a fair process will be followed from the point of arrival in Kathmandu until 12 months following migration to Jordan.  Migrant mental health, physical health, work expectations, work experiences, use of grievance procedures, psychological processes and productivity will be tracked.

Identification will be achieved by comparing migration experiences of fairly recruited migrants to existing data on for current migrants and by constructing a control group from recent and previous migrants currently employed in participating Jordanian factories.

Process tracing will be employed to analyze data from the point of arrival in Kathmandu to the point of arrival in Amman.  A difference in difference methodology will be used to analyze data from the point of arrival in Amman to 12 months following migration.

Working Papers

Forthcoming

Publications

Forthcoming

Funders

The International Labour Organization (ILO).